I'd always wanted a radio-controlled,
or RC car, but I'd never had a good
reason to get one. Then in 1987, Hasbro added one to the G.I.JOE 3-3/4"
lineup. It was called the CROSSFIRE, and it was actually a rather elusive
vehicle in some stores, since a lot of places tended to put it in with
the
other RC cars instead of with the G.I.Joe items. And since it wasn't
shown in
the 1987 product listings folder, some people didn't even know about
it
until
the TV commercials started.

I learned about it rather
oddly. At the time I was a very minor
stockholder
in Hasbro. Their 1987 Annual Report showed a number of toys on the cover,
including the Crossfire, which I absolutely did not recognize. So I
wrote
Hasbro and asked them, and they explained that this was the new
radio-controlled car for G.I.Joe.

The Crossfire looked a lot
like most RC cars of the time. Somewhere
between
an Indy car and a Sprint car -- sort of a short Indy car, really, except
the
Crossfire was olive green and had guns and missiles attached. These,
unfortunately, did not actually work, or I could have had loads of fun
with
this thing down at the local RC track that existed back then...!

The Crossfire came with a
driver figure named RUMBLER, who was a nice
recolored figure using parts of Footloose, Heavy Metal, and Bazooka.
This
was
the only RC car available in the G.I.Joe line.

Until now. While I may not
personally care for all of the G.I.JOE 3-3/4"
current
line-up, there are highlights that crop up here and there. One of these
is the
new MUV, which stands for MILITARY UTILITY VEHICLE. One of those times
where
I'm not entirely certain which came first -- the abbreviation or the
explanation.

Unlike the Crossfire, the
MUV has a distinctly military appearance to it.
Granted, RC vehicles in general have come a long way in the past fifteen
years. I've seen commercials for radio-controlled stuff that if you
could
make some of these things fly instead of just bounce all over the
landscape,
the local Air Force would be checking out UFO calls 24/7.

Fortunately, the MUV is both
a military-looking vehicle and entirely
plausible in its appearance. I'd say it comes from equal parts Hummer
and
conventional Jeep. It has a huge front grill, which I suspect is designed
to
absorb the impact of bad drivers. The vehicle is designed as a
two-seater,
but there's a third seat that can snap rather loosely in the back. Don't
expect this or the other snap-on item, which is either a gas can or
an
equipment case, to stay put all that well if you take this vehicle over
rough
terrain. Curiously, all of the pegs on this vehicle, including four
on
the
sideboards and a dozen in the back, look to have been filed down after
the
fact. Even the paint has been worn off the ones on the sideboard. I
have
NO
idea what this is supposed to mean. Perhaps they wanted it so that the
G.I.Joe figures could stand on these pegs? I checked it with the figure
that
came with the MUV, and it's a tight fit, but it does work. Perhaps it
didn't
before.

The MUV does come with a
new-style G.I.Joe figure, the new version of
BEACH-HEAD. I'm not going to say anything about this figure. I will
say
that
one nice thing about the new vehicles coming along in this toy line
is
that,
when there's a cool vehicle like this MUV, it can accommodate ANY 3-3/4"
G.I.Joes -- new-style or traditional-style.

And there's no shortage of
necessary equipment with this vehicle, as
well.
You get all the batteries you need, including a 9V transistor battery
for
the
control device, and a rechargeable pack of NiCad batteries for the
vehicle
itself, all wrapped up with a Tonka label on it. They even include the
recharger! Nice touch. I was originally going to say that the $37.74
price
tag (Wal-Mart) for this vehicle was just a little steep, but given all
of
the
extra equipment they give you to keep it running, I'd say it's a
reasonable
deal.

The vehicle maintains a pretty
good pace, and can handle limited rough
terrain. It goes forward, backward, and has a good left-and-right turning
circle, operable in both forward and backward modes. Maybe I can practice
my
parallel parking with this thing.

If you like RC cars, the
MUV is a definite winner, and a worthwhile
addition
to ANY 3-3/4" G.I.JOE Collection. And if for whatever reason you
don't
care
for the new-style Beach-Head figure it comes with -- well, assign it
to
TIGER
FORCE, then, perhaps. But I do recommend the G.I.JOE RADIO-CONTROLLED
MUV!